The Super Bowl is over, and the 2022 NFL season has come to a close. The Kansas City Chiefs are once again world champions and Bills Mafia is back repeating an all too familiar saying, “there is always next season”. The Buffalo Bills season ended weeks ago and all the talk around the fan base is primarily regarding the NFL Draft. But what about NFL Free Agency is only a month away?
So much of the draft is affected by what happens throughout free agency. While many might say the Bills need to draft a young, talented wide receiver in round one, what happens if they elect to sign a veteran in free agency? Is wide receiver no longer a need or do they stockpile the position? For me, I’d much rather stockpile the offensive line and let the five best linemen rise to the top, improving the line to protect Josh Allen, also known as the Bills’ Super Bowl window.
Over the years it seems the offensive line has been a point of contention with fans. For whatever reason, the Bills staff have not been able to build a solid unit. It’s almost like they are still recovering from the unexpected departures of Eric Wood and Richie Incognito several years ago. This team just has not put together an offensive line that is anything more than average at best since they left.
If the team decides to look to free agency again this year to improve the line, what are some options? There is a fair amount of talent available via free agency in offensive linemen but some of those may end up re-signing with their current team, while others may simply be too expensive for the Bills to fit under the cap this year. Buffalo will have some options with contract restructuring to free up some space, possibly around $56 million but that is dependent how which contracts they decide to restructure.
Keep in mind, a contract restructuring is not the same as renegotiating. The players involved will still get paid the same with a restructured contract, the difference being when they get paid. General Managers around the league get paid a lot of money to play the numbers games with contracts and the salary cap to make things work.
So, with that, let’s take a look at three potential free-agent offensive linemen signings for the Bills.